Reminiscence
by TheKaiSenpai
Summary: Jaune pays a short visit to Pyrrha's home outside of Mistral and shares the bad news. One-shot


Reminiscence

XXXXX

"Are you sure you wanna do this, kid?" Qrow's voice was unsteady as he, Oscar, Jaune, and Ruby stood in front of an elegant house that was located just outside of the city of Mistral. It was a two story building, and would have looked very similar to a log house if not for the bronze that decorated it. Bronze window frames. Bronze latches that kept the edges together. Even a bronze door. Perhaps it was a bit gaudy or tacky to some, but to Jaune it felt fitting.

His sword and shield felt heavier on his arm.

"Yeah, I'm sure," the young man replied, rolling his shoulders to try and keep from getting stiff. His heart was pounding in his chest at the thought of approaching the building. "I... have to do this alone. You guys will be waiting at the gates, right?" Ruby, gods bless her, grasped his arm.

"You'd have to try pretty hard to get rid of us, Jaune," she told him. "We'll wait however long we need. You need this." Jaune's eyes met Oscar's. The boy hardly knew what was going on, but a slow smile of understanding crossed his features. Ozpin must have been telling him about what had happened.

"Take as much time as you have to," Oscar followed up Ruby's words.

"Go on, kid," Qrow nudged the blonde forward. "The more you stand here the more you get cold feet. Just knock on the damn door." Jaune took a deep breath and let it out, taking a moment to prepare himself. His steps were overwhelmingly loud on the cobblestone walkway that led up to the house. Time seemed to slow as he raised his fist to the door. The sound of his knocking was deafening.

The former leader of Team JNPR looked back, and saw his friends were already gone. He was on his own. The young man stood patiently, hearing footsteps from within before the door finally opened.

She was definitely older than his partner, but held a youthful face and body despite being her mother. Her hair was a bright scarlet like hers, but her eyes were a light shade of purple. "Hello," her voice was mature and strong, but underneath it was the frailty that Pyrrha had always hidden. That he'd been too blind to hear during their time at Beacon. "Can I help you, young man?"

Jaune offered her as comforting a smile as he could. She was dressed in a simple red dress with bronze trimming. His mind flashed back to the dance for only a moment at the sight. "My name is Jaune Arc," he introduced himself to the woman. "I was... the partner of your daughter over at Beacon Academy." The woman's eyes lit up for a moment, and he could see her looking around. Looking for her.

"I see," she tried her best to keep her voice calm. "Where might Pyrrha be, then? She must have learned some pretty bad manners over at Beacon if she decided to send her partner ahead. Without even contacting us first, either." Despite the prodding, the humor was present in her smile. Her incredibly fragile smile.

"I, uh," Jaune swallowed hard. "Maybe we should move this inside, first?" He could see the woman's expression fall.

"Yes, perhaps that would be for the best," she nodded slowly. "My name is Athena Nikos. I'm so sorry, for the mess, it's been absolutely dreadful trying to pack all of Pyrrha's things for the move." She moved further into the house as she spoke, her voice growing a bit distant. The walls were painted a tactful white, and family pictures adorned the front hall of the building. His eyes traced over Pyrrha's life through photographs. Her birth. Her first and second birthdays. Her first junior competition.

The hall told the story of her life, and the pride that her parents had in her. He could feel the love of a family through each smile. Each pair of bright eyes. His own eyes settled on the final two pictures in the hall. It was a photograph that Pyrrha had insisted that they take in the middle of Vale. The first was of all four of them. The entire Team JNPR standing at the harbor with the ocean behind them. Pyrrha and himself took up the left side of the photo, while Nora hung off of Ren's back on the other side, raising two fingers in a victory sign.

The second photograph was of himself and Pyrrha only. It was one he didn't recognize, but it had to have been on the same day. He and Pyrrha were sat on a bench overlooking the harbor as the sun set, each with an icecream cone in hand. His had started to wobble as it melted, and he was desperately trying to straighten it out. Pyrrha was laughing, but had failed to notice that her own icecream had fallen to the ground in all the excitement. His eyes softened at the photo. It all seemed so long ago.

"She spoke very highly of you," Athena stood at the end of the hall, looking at the same picture that he was. "It took me a second to recognize you, but she often spoke about her team leader and partner who had quite a lot of potential." Her purple eyes met his. "I'm glad to have finally met the young man my daughter was so smitten with."

"N-No, the pleasure is mine," Jaune insisted, getting a smile from the older woman. "It's just... I wish I could have come under more pleasant circumstances." Athena's eyes watered. "Maybe you should sit down, Miss Nikos?"

"Perhaps I should," the woman spoke with a sigh and a sniffle. she led him further in to the living room where she sat on a leather couch, and himself on a chair resting across a table from it. "Jaune," she spoke. "May I call you Jaune?" The boy nodded. "Jaune, the last time I spoke to my daughter was before her single match at the Vytal Festival. I and my husband, Herm, wanted nothing more than to be there to cheer her on, but he was preoccupied with work and I didn't want to go without him." Her eyes met his. "What happened after the CCTV went down, Jaune? What happened to my daughter?"

"There was... there's more to it than just a terrorist attack, ma'am," the blonde spoke slowly. "There was so much more that I wish I'd known at the time. I- well- to start- ah..." Jaune paused, trying to find the right words. To her credit, Athena waited patiently. "The terrorists came for something incredibly powerful. An... object with unbelievable strength that was hidden in the school for safekeeping. The was the entire reason of the invasion."

Athena listened closely as the leader spoke his part. "Ozpin believed that your daughter could wield the power they had hidden. That she was right for the job. She never told any of us; she thought it was her duty to protect everyone and... and..." Jaune's eyes teared up, but he pressed on. "She didn't make a decision in time. After the attack on Beacon, we had to move quickly and defend both Vale and the school. We were completely overrun, though. It wasn't just Grimm. It was the White Fang and Atlas' robots that had somehow been hacked into."

Pyrrha's mother gasped, and her hands clenched into fists. "Ozpin took Pyrrha and I to get the power so we could repel the force, but somehow the woman in charge of the invasion followed us. she stole the power, and Ozpin told Pyrrha and I to flee. We did, but..." Jaune took a deep breath and he looked her in the eyes. "Your daughter was a brave young woman. She cared about everyone around her, and I'm proud to have been her partner and team leader." Athena nodded slowly. "She made sure I couldn't follow her. We saw the woman escape unharmed, and there was no sign of Ozpin. So Pyrrha went to fight her alone."

Jaune shook his head, tears trailing down his face. "I could only see flashes of light from where they fought. But Ruby, another student there, saw the end of it. The woman who organized everything shot Pyrrha in the chest and... she was disintegrated." Athena wept openly as soon as the words were spoken. Jaune closed his eyes, softly crying his own tears. It felt like so long ago, but the pain was still fresh. He felt Athena sit next to him and wrap her arms around his torso, and they both cried together.

It hurt, but he felt like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. Some sort of closure. He opened his eyes and looked to the picture that the Nikos family had on their coffee-table. It was of Pyrrha, Athena, and what he assumed was her father all standing in front of a Bullhead. she was dressed in the Beacon uniform, so it must have been days before initiation. Before they'd meet. For a brief moment, Jaune thought that he saw Pyrrha's smile widen, if only just by a little bit.

He said nothing, but something inside of him knew that Pyrrha was still watching over him despite everything. He, and the Nikos family, could finally move on.

 **XXXXX**

Just a short one-shot I decided to write using the canon universe. It was refreshing to write and I hope I did Jaune some justice, here.

Laters!


End file.
